Recurring element
In the games of Goichi Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture, there are lots of recurring imagery, tropes and themes, especially when it comes to titles belonging to Kill the Past. This page attempts to catalog them. Assassins *The mysterious Kamui Uehara from The Silver Case is an assassin taken down years ago, but now has reappeared. *''killer7'' has you playing as the US' top assassin team, the Smith Syndicate, and large swaths of the rest of the case are assassins as well, either in present or past. Examples include Travis Bell, Julia Kisugi, The Handsome Men, and many others. *''No More Heroes'' and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle revolve around Travis Touchdown climbing the rankings of the United Assassins Association, a listing of eccentric killers. Just like killer7, this means that most of the case has this profession. *''Killer Is Dead'' stars Mondo Zappa, an executioner of the government organization the Bryan Execution Firm. *''Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day'' is about schoolgirl Ranko Tsukigime who is secretly an assassin. Briefcases * Aramata is met early in Moonlight Syndrome carrying a briefcase. * Sumio Mondo carries a versatile briefcase-shaped computer in Flower, Sun, and Rain. * Garcian Smith carries the weapons of the Second Smith Syndicate personae in a large briefcase. Death and rebirth Because of Suda's original job as an undertaker, Suda began to piece together a fascination with death that permeates his games. Usually, death is not permanent in Suda's world, and many characters have opportunities to return to life, possibly reflecting the existence of extra lives in video games. *''The Silver Case's premise is that a dead assassin, Kamui Uehara, has seemingly returned to life. *In ''Flower, Sun, and Rain, Sumio Mondo dies midway through the game, having been shot off the top of the Flower, Sun, and Rain. He returns to life after Toriko Kusabi strikes a deal with the man who killed him. It is also revealed later on that several characters have stock bodies as clones that would allow them to carry on after death. *Harman Smith, Kun Lan and possibly Emir Parkreiner in killer7 have several incarnations, meaning that even if they die they will come back in some form. In addition, Harman's Multifoliate Personae Phenomenon can resurrect people in two different forms: one, as personas, becoming new identities that the main persona can turn into, and two, as Remnant Psyches who hang around as ghostly advisors. He also seems to possess standard resurrection abilities, later owned by Garcian Smith. *''No More Heroes'' character Thunder Ryu returns from the dead to advise Travis, much like the Remnant Psyches. *In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Dr. Letz Shake and Destroyman manage to come back to life despite being destroyed in over-the-top manners in the first game. *''Killer Is Dead'' opens this way, as an executioner in the first level is killed and then immediately resurrected by the Dark Matter from the moon. Later on, Bryan Roses survives getting hit by a train by purchasing golden replacement parts for his cyborg body. *''Let It Die'' bases its gameplay around this concept, as when your character dies, it is uploaded onto a server and is born again in other characters' games as an enemy. Hotels *''Flower, Sun, and Rain'' has a plot that mainly revolves around the Flower, Sun, and Rain hotel on Lospass Island, and its staff and guests, including the protagonist, guest Sumio Mondo. *The backstory of killer7 ends up tying back to a series of events that occurred at the Union Hotel. Interestingly, the man working there in the present day is Edo Macalister, who was also the manager of the Flower, Sun, and Rain. *Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle lives in the Motel "NO MORE HEROES" instead of purchasing a real house. *In the manga Kurayami Dance, the Union Hotel returns in some form in the second volume. Masks and masked wrestlers Wrestlers are another very common profession in Suda games, and just as in real life wrestling (especially lucha libre), several of those are masked. The mask concept is extended to various other kinds of masks, as well, such as cartoon character masks and general face-obscuring masks. *Naturally, being based off of real wrestling, Super Fire Prowrestling III: Final Bout and Super Fire Prowrestling Special contain masked wrestlers. *''The Silver Case'' features two masked characters during the Kamuidrome chapter. *Two minor characters in Flower, Sun, and Rain, El Crasher and Mr. Pirate, are masked wrestlers. *One of the playable characters in killer7 is the masked wrestler MASK de Smith, who acquires Mask Upgrades over the course of the game. One of the Remnant Psyches assisting the playable characters is Yoon-Hyun, who carries a mask and dons it to become the True Mask, who drinks blood. MASK's Heaven Smile opponents, the Protector Smile and its variants, all wear armor masks. The Handsome Men, being sentai heroes, naturally wear masks, and finally AYAME Blackburn wears an animegao mask. *In No More Heroes, Travis Touchdown learns new wrestling moves from messages from the suspiciously named M. S. stuffed in the mouths of masks. He also collects trading cards of wrestling masks, known as the Mask of the Legendary Wrestler set, which then get turned into real masks hanging on his wall. Mask Do UH wears a partial mask and also has several wrestling masks hanging in Area 51. *There are lots of masks in Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen, including a ritual mask key to the story and the semi-unofficial English title is Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. *If the player of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has save data for No More Heroes on their Wii, the same masks they had in the first game will carry over. Mask Do UH returns as well. Matt Helms' battle form wears a western cartoon character mask (reminiscent of AYAME Blackburn) and Jasper Batt Jr. wears a bat-themed eye mask in his second and third forms. *An enemy type in Shadows of the DAMNED is the Masked Demon who wears a gas mask. *A character in Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day is the Masked Man, yet another masked wrestler. The Moon :Main article: The Moon. The Moon, Earth's only natural satellite, is one of if not the most prominent theme(s) within Suda's games, so much so that it has its own page that lists appearances of the moon. Motorcycles *Travis Touchdown rides his customized, high-tech Schpeltiger in No More Heroes and Desperate Struggle. *Johnson in Shadows of the DAMNED can transform into a cruiser-style motorcycle. *In Killer Is Dead, Mondo Zappa and Vivienne fight Hamada-Yama from atop her UK-manufactured motorcycle. Phone calls * Most Requests in Flower, Sun, and Rain are opened by Sumio Mondo receiving a call on his hotel room's phone from Edo Macalister. * Most Targets in killer7 are opened by Garcian Smith listening to a message on his answering machine from Christopher Mills. * After defeating a boss in No More Heroes, Travis Touchdown returns home and listens to messages on his answering machine; one from the United Assassins Association and one from Diane. Before going out to fight a boss, he usually gets another one from Sylvia Christel. Similar scenes appear in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Additionally, solely in the first game, Sylvia calls Travis on his cell phone in the corridor before a boss. * Juliet Starling in Lollipop Chainsaw frequently gets calls from her family, most of which she listens to later. * Mondo Zappa in Killer is Dead frequently gets calls over his intercom, some from the Mondo Girls and some from the Bryan Execution Firm. Severed heads When a character dies from decapitation, their head oftentimes makes an appearance on its own, often within a paper bag. Sometimes, the heads will continue to speak after decapitation for one reason or another. *In Moonlight Syndrome Kyoko Kazan's head, in a paper bag, is delivered to her brother Ryo Kazan who keeps it with him. *In killer7, when a member of the Smith Syndicate is killed by a Heaven Smile or other adversary, they take the form of a severed head which quickly becomes within a paper bag. Garcian Smith, being the cleaner, can go and retrieve these bags in order to revive the personae. One of the Remnant Psyches, Susie Sumner, is also a severed head, who appears in various compartments all over the game, including in a bag. The second of the Red Gunners lost his head from a Heaven Smile as well, and Curtis Blackburn taunts Pedro Montana with his daughter's head. *In No More Heroes, enemy heads tend to fly off when killed by Travis Touchdown. Besides random goons, Helter-Skelter, Death Metal, and Speed Buster are all killed this way. *Similar trends continue in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Most notably, Bishop Shidux's head is delivered to Travis in a paper bag. Besides him and random goons, Skelter Helter, Million Gunman and one of the New Destroyman are killed in this way. Skelter and Million both briefly continue to speak after being beheaded. New Destroyman also threatens Shinobu with mailing her head to Touchdown before facing her. *''Shadows of the DAMNED'' has various severed heads littering the overall landscape, decor and aesthetic. Johnson is a floating skull, possibly a part of this theme as well. *In Lollipop Chainsaw, one of the main characters, Nick Carlyle, becomes a head that stayed alive after being separated from his body, due to Juliet Starling casting an incantation. *In Killer Is Dead, Bryan Execution Firm targets Tokio, Alice, Victor, Hamada-Yama, Giant Head, Dolly and David are assassinated by decapitation. Shopping centers *The Babylon Shopping Center appears in The Silver Case. *The Spice Shop mall appears in Flower, Sun, and Rain. *The Santa Destroy Junction Mall appears in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Tigers Tigers are a recurring animal in Suda51 and Grasshopper games. They are sometimes depicted as being enemies to dragons, an element of Chinese idioms and culture. *In Flower, Sun, and Rain, El Crasher is a wrestler wearing a tiger mask who was defeated by a wrestler named Dragon. *''Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked's character select menu uses a tiger to represent Mugen and a dragon to represent Jin. *The ''No More Heroes games use the tiger as the main animal motif of Travis Touchdown, in aspects such as UI and, in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, a literal transformation. Travis can also get tiger-themed clothes, and there are tiger skin rugs lining Death Metal's mansion. In the second game, Travis fights a dragon-themed assassin named Ryuji. *''Diabolical Pitch'' is about a pitcher for the Santa Destroy Red Tigers. *In Killer Is Dead, two characters, Hamada-Yama and Bryan Roses have tiger and dragon tattoos respectively. The former's tattoo begins to act on its own when the owner begins to turn into a wire. Whisper text-to-speech Whisper, a text-to-speech voice on Mac computers, has been used in The Silver Case, for the voice of Travis Bell in killer7, and for the announcement of the bosses' names in No More Heroes. In addition, several other Mac voices were used in killer7 for the other Remnant Psyches. Category:Analysis